The political war between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) does not seem to end any time soon. The AAP-led Delhi government on Tuesday defended its decision to pay senior advocate Ram Jethmalani from the exchequer, after the BJP equated the move with corruption.
Deputy Chief Minister and AAP leader Mr. Manish Sisodia said Chief Minister Avind Kejriwal was not fighting a “personal land dispute” but was initiating an inquiry against the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) for corruption.
The comment was made on the government’s move to pay a legal bill of around ₹3.4 crore that Mr. Kejriwal has to foot in a defamation suit filed against him by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
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Mr. Jaitley had filed the suit seeking ₹10 crore in damages after the Chief Minister and five other AAP leaders accused him of alleged irregularities and financial bungling in the DDCA, of which the former was the president for about 13 years until 2013.
L-G seeks opinion
Mr. Jethmalani, the Chief Minister’s counsel, has made 11 appearances in the case so far. Mr. Sisodia has signed off on the bills and sent them for clearance to Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal, who has sought the opinion of experts on how to proceed.
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“Corruption in the DDCA was affecting the cricketing culture in the country. The Delhi government formed a committee to investigate it. It is not for Mr. Kejriwal’s personal purpose that he should foot the bill,” Mr. Sisodia said.
He also alleged that the BJP was trying to divert attention from the EVM tampering charge that the AAP had levied.
“This case has been going on for the last one-and-a-half years, but they [BJP] thought now was the right time to rake it up. This is because they are trying to divert public attention from the issue of EVM tampering,” he said.
AAP leader Ashish Khetan also reacted to the issue, calling it an “unequal fight” between Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Jaitley.
“Mr. Kejriwal has been fighting against corrupt corporates and politicians, while Mr. Jaitley has been defending these influential people. Mr. Jaitley is a rich man, but Mr. Kejriwal is penniless.” Mr. Khaitan said.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, alleged “misuse of crores of public money” by the Delhi government for their “personal interests”.
Unfulfilled promise
“The Arvind Kejriwal government, which came to power with the promise of ending corruption, is itself involved in corruption. Instead of working for the development of Delhi and public welfare, it is busy serving its political interests by openly misusing public resources and systems. The L-G had recently strongly objected to the misuse of ₹97 crore by the Delhi government on advertisements and ordered the Chief Secretary to recover this amount from the AAP,” Mr. Gupta said.
He further alleged that the Chief Minister had hired Mr. Jethmalani by paying ₹1 crore as retainership fees and ₹22 lakh per appearance to fight the case.
He said he would meet the L-G over the issue on Wednesday and demand punitive action against those found guilty. The leader will be accompanied by BJP legislators O.P. Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan, among others.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kejriwal asked if he had made a mistake by initiating a probe against the DDCA.
“I ordered a probe against the DDCA, but the corrupt BJP filed a case against me. We hired one of the top lawyers for the case but now they are asking me why the government should pay. Should I pay from my pocket? They [BJP] want to weaken our fight against corruption,” he said.